Ring In the New Year
by silvermoonstone23
Summary: Everything felt so open in that moment. There they all were—just a bunch of kids, the beach beneath them, the sky above them, the land behind them, the sea before them. {Soulsilvershipping one-shot, bits of Mangaquestshipping, Oldrivalshipping, Specialshipping, and Franticshipping, a New Year's present for Vexation9220!}


_A/N: So, this is a New Year's present for my friend Vex, since I couldn't think of a Christmas story for her. And because it's Soulsilvershipping and LOTS OF FLUFF FOR YOU THIS NEW YEAR! (please don't show this to other people or I will display the dancing video ^-^)_

_Anyways, I hope everyone has a wonderful new year! Hope you like this short little story skirmish. Best wishes for 2015!_  
_Rant over! Read on!_  
_-Silvia_

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokespe or anything else.**

* * *

**Ring In the New Year**

"I am_ not_ going to stand here all night with you."

"Who said anything about standing?" Lyra grinned as she spread a blanket over the satiny sand, blemished by only some footprints. Silver sent a glare her way, but she grinned in the face of his fury. That always made him feel like a fool. Yet somehow, she always managed to combat his grouchiness with her irritating childishness. She put a hand on her hip, satisfied at the seating arrangement, before scampering down the slope to where the ocean kissed the beach.

Silver stood there only a moment before his cell phone buzzed obnoxiously. That was a fairly good description for the caller as well.

_"Silver!"_ Gold boomed through the phone. Silver resisted the urge to hold the receiver away from his ear. _"Where are you, man? The party's starting!"_

"I got a little...tied up," Silver replied, his eyes landing on Lyra, who was squeaking at the feel of the freezing seawater on her bare feet. Her shoes and socks were carelessly tossed aside the blanket she'd put down.

_"You're with Lyra, aren't you?"_ Gold said knowingly.

"Shut up," Silver snapped reflexively.

Gold laughed. _"Good luck man. I've got my own plans for a New Year's kiss—ow! Crys, what was that for?"_

In the background of the call, Silver could hear Crystal's muffled voice: _"Just because Whitney and Jasmine will be at the party doesn't mean either of them will want to kiss you!"_

_"Quiet down, Super Serious Gal, I'm trying to talk to Silver!"_ Some scuffling, and then— _"So where'd she drag you off to this time?"_

"The beach," Silver reluctantly answered. "She wants to film or take pictures or something. I don't get why she wants to spend all night here. I mean, the sunset is pretty, but after that it'll be all dark and look that way all night. I'm not sure why she thinks taking the same pictures over and over again will be so much fun."

_"And you're gonna stay with her the whole time?" _Gold asked, incredulous. _"That's determination, my friend. I salute you."_

"I didn't want to. But she asked me to drive her out of the city. I didn't realise she planned on staying here until midnight. I'm not staying because I like her, or because I have any other motives—" Gold snickered at this, "—but because it's dangerous to stay out here all alone. You know what she's like. She's too trusting."

_"Yeah, we all know,"_ Gold remarked wryly. _"Well, good luck, buddy. See ya."_ Gold hung up. Silver shoved his phone deep in the pocket of his coat and sighed, settling down on the blanket as the sky turned from periwinkle and light pink to vibrant orange.

* * *

Three years before, around the same time, Silver had been on his way to a New Year's Eve party with Gold. They had met up with Gold's friend, Red, a guy Gold had known since high school. Silver, meanwhile, had only met Gold in September, when they'd become roommates.

The party overflowed with mostly students of the city's university, the very same one that both Gold and Silver attended. The two of them hovered around Red and his friends for a while, before Gold tried to make Silver dance. It ended with Gold receiving a blooming black eye and bruised pride.

Silver didn't remember particularly enjoying that party. It was packed with strangers, and he was there with _Gold _when he much rather would have been back at their room reading the book he was in the middle of. Or out with a real friend instead of his obnoxious roommate.

It was nearing midnight when Silver noticed Red talking animatedly to a nervous-looking petite blonde. Their height difference was almost comical.

"He is _so_ going to try to kiss her," said a voice from right behind Silver. He glanced over his shoulder to see that a tall brunette had sidled over, a guy with sharp jade-coloured eyes following resignedly after her. Gold introduced them quickly as Blue and Green respectively. Sophomore friends of Red and Gold.

"Are you sure that's a good thing?" Green asked the giggling girl, Blue.

She tilted her head curiously. "Why wouldn't it be? I've been rooting for those two since October of freshman year!"

"But what if she doesn't want to be kissed?" Green said harshly. "And she'll just let him because it's New Year's."

"Of course she wants him to kiss her. She's liked him for over a year."

Green shrugged dismissively. "I'm just saying, the whole idea of a kiss at midnight on New Year's Day is just stupid. People feel obligated to just accept it."

"So you won't be my New Year's kiss?" Blue pouted. Silver noticed for the first time that Green's arm was around her waist. Green ignored her.

Silver looked to Gold, who was scanning the room, a hunter searching for prey. Silver rolled his eyes. Of _course _Gold would be looking for a girl for midnight. This was _far _less surprising than the sudden appearance of a girl from Silver's public speaking class. The clock struck twelve, and four things happened:

Green and Blue discreetly left the party.

Gold located a pretty girl.

Red leaned down to kiss Yellow.

And the girl from Silver's class planted a great, smacking kiss on his lips. Then she grinned at his utterly shocked expression, and without having said a word, skipped away.

* * *

"Silver!" Lyra's shout was sharp in his ears, high and sweet over the crashing of waves. "Come look at this!"

The sky was inky, studded with bright stars. Silver had let the hours tick by, reading the book he'd brought along, using his phone as a light source. Occasionally, he'd looked up to see Lyra, still scampering about. She was doodling or writing something in a book one minute, snapping pictures of footprints the next, then kicking off her shoes and squealing at the icy water.

Silver shoved himself up when she called for him, sore from sitting on the sand for so long. He jogged to meet her at the shoreline. "What did you want to show me?" he asked, his words coming out gruffer than he meant.

Lyra grabbed the sleeve of his coat and pulled him dangerously close to where the waves were lazily flopping onto the sand. "Look at the way the light of the stars and moon fall on the ocean," she said dreamily. She was slow to release her hold on him.

"It's pretty," he deadpanned.

"_Pretty _doesn't fit things like that." She puffed out her cheeks. "It's a million different things at once. It's one irreversible instance, one incredible thing we can witness with our eyes right now and never see the same way again."

Silver wasn't sure if what she was saying made all that much sense, but he knew it was not much use to argue with an art major. The ringing of his phone cut off anything he was about to say, anyways.

"Hello?" he barked into it.

_"Silver!" _Gold once again. _"What beach are you on?"_

Silver didn't know. But Gold was loud enough that Lyra could hear, because she took the phone from Silver and explained to Gold their location. "Why do you want to know?" Lyra asked, but the line was dead and so was the battery in Silver's phone.

* * *

During Silver and Gold's sophomore year, the party that Gold dragged Silver off to was one thrown by a friend of Blue's. Silver at least had become friends with the upperclassmen—juniors at the time—enough to talk with them while Gold ran laps around the crowd.

"He's…sociable, I'll give him that," Blue remarked. Her gaze then shifted to Red and Yellow, their arms hooked together, dancing goofily. She beamed mischievously before yanking Green into the crowd of dancers and prancing around him while he stood mostly still. (Silver looked over after a while to find that Green was swaying, looking bored.)

Silver and Gold were torn from their upperclassmen friends at some point, stranded in the vast ocean of a crowd. As the night dragged on, they discovered that Gold and Silver's mutual friend-like-girl, Crystal, was there. The two of them found themselves at her sides, lost in a sea of unfamiliar faces.

At midnight, Gold stole a quick kiss from a girl in the year below them, Sapphire. Crystal looked away, trying not to look annoyed, or maybe hurt. Silver considered kissing Crystal himself, but figured it would be weird and not what she wanted. Green had been right the previous year in saying that a New Year's kiss almost felt like an undesired obligation sometime.

"You alright, Crys?" Silver heard a voice ask. He turned to see that a girl with pigtails had approached and was watching Crystal with concern. He froze. It was the very same girl who had kissed him the year before.

"I'm fine, Lyra," Crystal had replied immediately. Her eyes saw through the girl, though. Her eyes saw Gold.

Lyra, unfortunately, spotted Silver before he could slip away through the crowd. "Hey! You're Crys's friend?" she asked, grinning toothily. "I'm her sister, Lyra. We've had classes together, and I saw you last year."

"Last year?" Crystal asked. "Like, New Year's Eve?"

"It's New Year's _Day_, silly!" Lyra giggled. "Midnight. Which means…" And then, very abruptly, took Silver's face in her hands and kissed him once again. When she pulled back, Silver could see Crystal's half-stunned, half-bemused expression. And then, he saw that Gold was making his way back towards them.

Crystal tugged on Lyra's arm. "We should be going, Lyra."

Lyra's eyes glinted with satisfied. "Nice seeing you again…um…?" She gazed at him questioningly.

"Silver," he said reluctantly.

"Silver," she echoed in that chirpy manner of hers before she vanished in the crowd with her sister.

Gold reappeared beside Silver a few jostling, claustrophobic moments later. "Where did Crys go?" he asked.

Silver shook his head. "You're an idiot."

* * *

And that brought them to this year.

"What are you thinking about?" Lyra asked him, her voice returning him to the present. She tilted her head to the side curiously. Silver tried not to find the motion adorable.

"How we met," he said.

"We met in that class we took," she pointed out.

"You know what I mean." He couldn't say it. A junior in college and he was still hopeless as ever, especially when it came to Lyra. He'd found that in the second semester of his sophomore year, they'd had a class together again. She'd taken the opportunity then to haunt him like a ghost. She tagged along with him and Crystal, and Gold befriended her almost immediately. Somehow, without much fuss, she'd become his friend. And, much like Gold, decided to drag him to various places.

"Oh," she said to him. "Do you know what time it is?"

He shook his head. "I'm not wearing a watch, and my phone is dead."

"Maybe…maybe it's close to midnight?" she said wonderingly. "Maybe it already is midnight."

Silver knew what she meant. The ebb and flow of the sea went on, but Silver couldn't hear a sound. All he saw was Lyra, right before him, waiting as he leaned forward—

"SILVER!" howled Gold at exactly the wrong moment. Silver and Lyra's gazed snapped from each other to the road just beyond the beach, where two cars were pulling up. Gold had jumped out of one and waved at them. Silver and Lyra watched as their friends spilled from the vehicles and rushed forward to the beach.

"What are you doing here?" Silver called.

"We came to join the party!" Blue laughed.

"We couldn't find any booze, so, um, is apple cider okay?" Red asked with that sheepish smile of his. They were beginning to set up camp where Silver had laid out a blanket. Yellow even held up sparklers with a jubilant beam on her face.

Lyra's smile was bright, even in the darkness of night. "It's perfect."

"What time is it?" Silver asked. "Is it past midnight?"

"No, man, we've still got like an hour 'till the new year!"

Their sophomore friends emerged from the second car, the one Crystal had been driving, Gold serving as her very faulty navigator. Emerald pretended that he didn't want to be there, when there really was no place he would rather be. Sapphire dragged along her boyfriend, Ruby, who complained about getting his nice shoes covered in sand. Silver watched as, after a moment, the red-eyed boy loosened up. He sped up, running alongside Sapphire, grinning. Their laughs carried through the air on the free wind.

Everything felt so open in that moment. There they all were—just a bunch of kids, the beach beneath them, the sky above them, the land behind them, the sea before them.

When midnight finally rolled around—by mark of the countdown that Gold had on his phone—they all gathered near their circle of lanterns and blankets and sparklers. Emerald had even set up speakers that connected to his phone and played music. He made sure to be locked in conversation with Green and Blue, who he knew never kissed at midnight (due to Green's talent of sucking the fun out of everything, Blue always said jokingly). Sapphire was still gallivanting in circles around Ruby, who shook his head and laughed at her wildness. Red was standing with his friends, an arm around Yellow, who glowed in the dim light.

Silver approached Gold. "So I guess you won't get a kiss from Whitney or Jasmine?" he remarked, for just Gold to hear.

Gold shrugged. "I guess not."

After a pause, Silver said, "Oh, just kiss her. You know you want to." Gold stared at him, incredulous. And yet, when they all began chanting, counting down from ten, Gold surprised Crystal with a quick peck, waiting for her reaction almost shyly. She looked at him as if she'd just discovered a gem beneath the rough earth, and threw her arms around him.

Silver watched this, amused, and felt a light tap on his shoulder. He whirled around to see Lyra facing him with a bashful expectance.

"Do you want me to kiss you?" he found himself asking stupidly. But for once he wanted it to be a choice.

"It's sort of our tradition," Lyra claimed. Her voice was soft, her cheeks tinted pink.

Silver leaned forward and pressed his lips against hers. It was different than the times they had kissed before. Because this time, they knew each other. They were friends—maybe more—and they both _wanted _it. It marked a new year, a new start. Everything changing for the two of them, but for the better.

It was by far the best New Year's party Silver had ever attended.


End file.
